Acting Delaware County District Attorney Shawn J. Smith said the charges are false.
Brian Lee
Litigation Reporter
A judge has compelled an acting prosecutor in south-central New York and another attorney to cooperate with an investigation of a complaint of misconduct against a former judge, after the two lawyers had refused to obey a subpoena, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct said in a statement Tuesday.
The two attorneys—acting Delaware County District Attorney Shawn J. Smith, and Gregory B. Peirez of Chenango County—were required to testify and produce emails pertinent to the commission’s inquiry into the former judge, whom the commission did not mention by name.
However, Smith, in an interview, said the matter pertains to David Rikard, a former Prattsville town justice in Greene County whom Smith hired earlier this year to serve as his chief assistant district attorney.
Rikard was formally notified of the commission’s investigation after he had resigned from the bench to accept the prosecutor role, and thus, refuses to cooperate with the state investigation.
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